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TIAA was founded in 1918 to help teachers retire with dignity. That mission grew to include those in healthcare and more, creating reliable income for their futures while they work to make a difference today. Our commitment to doing the right thing—for our customers, employees and communities—has never wavered, and is why today, we’re an industry leader in building financially sound futures.

Ellucian is a software company in the higher education space with offices around the world. Ellucian guides over 2,700 customers in more than 50 countries, improving operations and enhancing the user experience for their faculties, staff, and over 26 million students.

Jenzabar is a leader in delivering modern ERP, SIS, and data analytics solutions to higher education institutions around the world. Created out of a passion for education and driven by a vision of technology innovation, Jenzabar’s comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions and services gives institutions the state-of-the-art functionality required to address the needs and expectations of today’s modern, digital-savvy students. With over 30 years of experience, Jenzabar supports more than 1,300 campuses worldwide with intuitive and powerful offerings than enable long-term success for both institutions and their students.

National Management Resources Corporation was founded in 1978. National provides services exclusively to private institutions of higher learning. Services include physical plant maintenance and repair, custodial, landscape, event planning and setups, security, and construction management. National tailors its services to meet the needs and goals of the clients the company serves. With National, a college can rest assured that its facilities look their best for recruitment, retention, and advancement. National helps make colleges and universities look picture perfect all of the time.

Sodexo, a leader in quality of life services, is committed to enhancing the learning environment on campus. By focusing on quality of life services, the company reinforces the overall experience of campus life, which in turn improves its partners’ effectiveness and performance. From designing meals around lifestyle needs to designing buildings for increasing enrollments, its commitment to providing students and staff a nurturing learning environment spans the entire campus experience. 

Strada Education Network is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to improving lives by catalyzing more direct and promising pathways between education and employment. Strada engages partners across education, nonprofits, business, and government to focus relentlessly on students’ success throughout all phases of their working lives. Together, they address critical college to career challenges through strategic philanthropy, research and insights, and mission-aligned affiliates — all focused on advancing the universal right to realized potential Strada calls Completion With a Purpose. 

ACT | NRCCUA is an educational data science platform and research organization with offices in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, and Austin, Texas. For 44 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. 

EAB’s mission is to make education smarter and communities stronger. The firm harnesses the collective power of more than 2,100 institutions to uncover and apply proven practices and transformative insights. From kindergarten to college and beyond, EAB partners with education leaders to accelerate progress and drive results across three key areas: enrollment management, student success, and institutional strategy.

Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates takes an authentic approach to providing strategic and philanthropic consulting services to private colleges and universities. Their 25 years of experience is where their authentic approach first becomes apparent. JGA’s consulting team have been senior advancement officers, leaders of institutions, and philanthropic consultants. Whatever scenario or challenge leaders in higher education face, it’s likely someone on the team has faced it too. JGA’s breadth and depth of experience allow them to serve as thought leaders and openly share their experience and expertise. Every lesson they’ve learned along the way, they bring to the table to become their clients’ strengths.

The Registry is the nation's leading firm in the interim executive space. It is the only membership-based interim placement firm, which provides a business model that preempts the need for expensive, time-consuming, and potentially disruptive open-market interim searches. Over the last quarter-century, the Registry has defined and institutionalized "best practices" for the engagement of interim executives. Now with over 1,000 members, the Registry is prepared to respond to the interim needs and requirements of colleges and universities in every sector and throughout the nation. The Registry can immediately generate interim candidate pools for presidents/chancellors, all cabinet positions, and deans. Most importantly, the Registry provides the very best interim talent, and its members continue to achieve the very best results for their college and university clients.

Aramark delivers innovative dining and facility management solutions to create safe, healthy, and dynamic campuses that attract and engage students. As a partner to over 600 higher education institutions, their complete array of dining services includes master planning, culinary development and venue design, catering, concessions, and residential, full service, and express dining concepts. Aramark’s expertise in facilities services covers maintenance, custodial, grounds, energy and engineering solutions, capital project management, and building commissioning.

Campus Prevention Network (CPN) consists of 1,200 colleges, universities, and national fraternities/sororities, reaching over 5M students, staff, faculty with digital training on topics like substance misuse, sexual assault and harassment, diversity and inclusion, and mental wellness.

Capture Higher Ed is a leading enrollment management and marketing firm that helps higher education institutions make personalized, data-driven, timely and measured connections with prospective students. Powered by the industry’s only Behavioral Intelligence Platform—combining marketing automation, predictive modeling, and a managed service approach—Capture’s marketing solutions and expert services are designed to identify, convert, and enroll the right students for colleges and universities. Capture generates the industry’s strongest enrollment outcomes for client institutions, from hitting application targets to achieving net tuition goals.

Collegis Education serves as a catalyst for their partners’ success by providing the expertise, best practices, technology, and insights necessary to help tackle today’s challenges and prepare for the future. With over 25 years’ experience, Collegis Education provides comprehensive technology-enabled services to help grow enrollments, deliver high-quality learning experiences, manage the technology ecosystem, and inform strategic decisions.   

Credo has partnered with college and university presidents, cabinets, and boards across critical areas of institutional strategy and operations for more than 25 years. Credo's strategic planning and student success engagements are enriched by in-house leadership, enrollment, financial aid, campus master planning, and architecture expertise. Keeping students always at the center, Credo's action-oriented, results-driven partnerships connect to people and culture as the most powerful vehicles to impact transformational student experiences. Informed by proprietary research on institutional thriving and propelled by a robust team of higher education experts, Credo complements your on-campus talent with external context, strategy, support, and accountability.

EFL Associates is a retained executive search firm established in 1978 with offices in Kansas City, Missouri; Denver, Colorado; and Houston, Texas. The firm offers customized search services to small and large institutions, both public and private, and has assisted more than 200 colleges and universities across the country. The firm’s consultants meet with institutional leadership to develop the list of services that would be most helpful for a particular search and then focus its efforts on fulfilling those tasks. EFL Associates’ distinctive feature is its commitment to meeting the specific needs of its clients. The consultant during the discovery phase of the project is the person who will guide the search through to successful appointment. EFL’s commitment to diversity is well above the industry average with diversity placements in 2015 exceeding 60 percent. The firm’s goal is to provide an efficient and effective process for its client institutions. 

Gonser Gerber LLP partners with college and university leaders who aim to increase their institution’s charitable giving results, enhance their institutional brand, and strengthen the human and financial capacities of their institutions. The firm believes that independent higher education helps promote the most virtuous of human impulses and makes our world more educated, healthy, caring, generous, and equitable for the benefit of all. Since 1950, Gonser Gerber has provided comprehensive advancement and leadership consulting services, professional development solutions, and customized executive search in support of presidents, board members, and advancement leaders at institutions throughout North America.

Hastings+Chivetta Architects, Inc. has provided architectural services including master planning, design, and construction oversight for more than 220 collegiate clients in 42 states across the nation. Founded in 1960, the firm is especially proud of the relationships they have strived to forge with their 83 CIC member institutions. Projects with these partners include STEM, student life, student housing, academic, recreation, and athletic facilities. Hastings+Chivetta brings a whole campus perspective to all their planning and design endeavors.

Metz Culinary Management is a family-driven, privately owned company that collaborates with its clients to deliver restaurant-inspired hospitality to each and every guest since 1994. By taking the time to learn the needs of those they serve, Metz Culinary Management provides unsurpassed service that exceeds the needs of their guests. In 2020, Food Management Magazine named Metz Culinary Management one of its Top 15 Contract Management Companies in the U.S.

Orbis Education solves health care workforce shortages by creating collaborative partnerships between educators and employers. Orbis partnerships combine the university’s academic expertise, the health care provider’s clinical expertise, and the company’s own substantial program management expertise to drive transformative enrollment growth without sacrificing academic quality. Orbis specializes in managing degree programs for high-demand health care fields, such as nursing and occupational therapy, which also have a significant clinical education component. The company helps academic partners remove the typical barriers to enrollment growth, from lack of capital to constrained faculty resources to the challenge of securing and managing clinical placements. The result is a health care program that attracts quality students, creates more high-quality practitioners to meet employer demand, and provides a sustainable incremental revenue stream for the institution. 

The Learning House, Inc. helps people improve their lives through education. The academic program manager offers a full suite of education services, including Online Program Management, Corporate Solutions, The Software Guild, Learning House International, and Advancement Courses. Built on a foundation of data-driven decision making, thorough market research, and robust technology services, Learning House is focused on delivering high-quality, relevant, timely education services to meet the needs of a dynamic, global market. Through its partnerships, Learning House helps universities acquire more students, produce more graduates, and deliver better outcomes while helping companies attract, develop, and retain a happier, more skilled workforce. 

Yaffe & Company, Inc. can help where boards and executive teams interface, and where data and relationships intersect. The firm’s team is comprised of former presidents of prestigious colleges and universities, and has four decades of experience in helping institutions to thrive and grow. Yaffe & Company are experts in the areas of board effectiveness, executive compensation contracts and performance, IRS compliance, goal-setting and performance evaluation, retirement and retention plan design, succession planning, leadership development, and presidential transition. With the firm’s guidance, the institution’s entire team will have constructive conversations that lead to greater clarity, meaningful outcomes, and positive growth. 

AGB Search, LLC focuses exclusively on higher education leadership. The firm identifies interim appointments to preserve continuity, offers full search services to help institutions navigate the hiring process, provides transition assistance to set up leaders for long-term success, and offers compensation evaluation services to assess fair, competitive salaries. Each member of the consulting team brings years of experience as a higher education leader to the firm. AGB Search not only understands the demands of leadership, but also is deeply invested in supporting the next generation of leaders. 

Art & Science Group offers market-informed strategy to higher education institutions, independent schools, and the nonprofit sector. Since its founding in 1994, the firm has provided its clients with strategic market research and recommendations, built on a foundation of both creative thinking and empirical rigor—art and science. The Group works in a variety of arenas, leveraging a foundation of market data, analysis, and inventive ideas, to guide and advance institutions’ strategic interests and critical investments. The firm is dedicated to helping each institution position itself in ways that positively affect the decisions of its key constituents in the institution’s favor. The Group provides a customized and collaborative approach for each client, with recommendations rooted in sophisticated research and thorough analysis. 

Asset Strategy Consultants (ASC), celebrating its 30th year in 2021, continues to provide independent investment advisory services to endowments, foundations, retirement plans, operating reserves, and private wealth clients. With a long history of supporting educational clients, ASC advises on endowment portfolios as well as 403(b) plans for higher-ed. ASC’s thoughtful approach to investing helps manage risk and responsibility for institutions while achieving their individual investment needs and spending goals. Whether it be traditional consulting or an outsourced CIO model, ASC provides fiduciary oversight, education, and governance. In addition, growing 403(b) plans and offering financial wellness is how the firm helps college and university employees.

AVI Foodsystems, Inc. is a family-owned and operated foodservice company founded by John Payiavlas in 1960. His son Anthony now serves as CEO and president, continuing his father’s tradition of responsible and sustained growth serving leading education, business, healthcare, and leisure and entertainment institutions across the United States and Canada. Today, AVI Foodsystems is the largest family-owned foodservice company in the United States with over $800 million in revenue. The firm has always been driven by core values that define who they are and how they act: integrity, excellence, Innovation, relationships, sensitivity toward people, sensitivity toward society, family, passion, customer and guest focus, and accountability.

Casagrande Consulting, LLC has provided more than 100 institutions of higher education with insight into board, leadership and compensation effectiveness since their launch in 2009.

Creative Communication Associates (CCA) is a full-service marketing communications and branding agency, specializing exclusively in higher education. From the Ivy League to large public universities to small private colleges to specialty schools, CCA’s nearly 30 years of strategic and creative expertise has built some of the best brands in higher education today. 

Derck & Edson, LLC‘s commitment to higher education is demonstrated through their numerous planning, enhancement, and athletics projects on campuses throughout the United States. The firm’s expertise is demonstrated by the lasting, positive impressions that their work leaves on college and university campuses. Since 1940, the company has been transforming campuses through planning, design, and implementation services that meet the needs of colleges and universities, including: feasibility studies, master planning, athletic facilities design, implementation services, engineering, GIS services, architectural services, site design, circulation solutions, construction observation, inventory and analysis, and identity enhancement. 

Dynamic Campus provides a proven blend of managed IT services, on-demand technical capabilities, and a vendor-agnostic approach to help colleges and universities maximize the performance of their existing technology investments and IT support teams.

EIIA is a nonprofit, member-driven consortium, committed to protecting the promise of private, faith-inspired institutions of higher education through the delivery of innovative insurance and risk management solutions. EIIA integrates the collective wisdom of their members with industry expertise to achieve a dynamic partnership that generates extraordinary results for property and casualty, employee benefit programs, and student programs. 

Hanover Research, a leading research and analytics firm, helps institutions of all sizes and types tackle critical academic, marketing, and administrative challenges. Their experts develop customized plans using multiple research methodologies to deliver the insights institutions need to make informed decisions. In addition to their custom research, Hanover’s members also work with them to submit more competitive grants, develop a grant-seeking culture and competency, find the right grant opportunities, build relationships that lead to funding, and strategically position their programs and grants operations.

Hunter Global Education, LLC bridges the educational and relational gaps between American and Asian educational institutions. American institutions that once served local and regional needs are now being challenged to enter the global market. But how? Hunter, through a variety of programs and services, aims to establish long-term income producing programs for its clients. Through its long history in Asia and its special pathway programming, Hunter has established successfully long-term relationships that provide the platform for developing partnerships and income producing programs for American institutions with Asian institutions.

Ideas for Action is a management consulting firm. Since 1995, IFA has served higher education and nonprofit organizations by strengthening executive leadership performance, guiding thoughtful and disciplined strategic planning and dialogue, assessing and improving organizational culture, engaging faculty governing bodies to improve shared governance and faculty engagement, and providing insight, information, and actionable solutions to leaders across a variety of institutional levels. Their clients call on IFA when they want to develop leaders, define strategy, build consensus, and achieve results.

Inside Higher Ed is the online source for news, opinion, and jobs for all of higher education. Inside Higher Ed has what any administrator or faculty member, grad student, or vice president needs to thrive professionally: breaking news and feature stories, provocative daily commentary, career advice, and practical tools to advance careers. Inside Higher Ed is a top resource for those in higher education, drawing 1.5 million readers each month, making it the ideal platform to reach a large and diverse audience of influential higher education professionals. 

Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University is a programmatic and grant-making organization committed to furthering freedom of expression in higher education and the flourishing of classic liberal studies in the college curriculum. Programs such as Learn Liberty introduce undergraduate students to classical liberal ideas and writers, while grants for graduate students assist interested students in pursuing advanced degrees. Grants to faculty members support on-campus programming related to liberal education and, increasingly, freedom of expression and open inquiry. 

Miller/Cook & Associates, Inc. has been providing comprehensive enrollment management services to colleges and universities since 1989. Whether an institution’s goal is determining the extent to which its financial aid policies support its enrollment objectives, revising existing practices to more effectively and efficiently meet enrollment goals, or building a multiple-year, net-revenue model, the professionals at Miller/Cook are available to design a plan that meets an institution’s needs. While their clients’ goals have differed, Miller/Cook has met or exceeded goals at more than 90 percent of partner institutions. Miller/Cook has recently added a new associate team member – Quantum. While print media remains important, Quantum takes direct mail and publication needs to a new level with its customized and measurable smart mail and printing processes. 

mStoner, Inc. is a digital-first agency committed to tailored solutions that deliver real results. The company crafts powerful, tailored, human-centric experiences to illuminate clients’ brands and allow them to tell their unique story. mStoner connects their clients with the right audience at the right time to form right-fit relationships. The firm positions teams for improved productivity, sustainable growth, internal alignment, and proof-positive success. mStoner aims to help clients create inspired work that they are proud to show off. Since 2001, mStoner has worked with more than 350 colleges, universities, and professional schools in the U.S. and abroad.

Partners Development is a national provider of diversified real estate development services. The firm has built a solid reputation with decades of project performance, specializing in comprehensive facilities development and project management for private, independent colleges and universities. Partners’ resume includes administrative, academic, athletic, fine arts, lab, and residential facilities. Utilizing proven turn-key development methods, Partners assures that campus facility projects are completed on time and within the established budget.  

Pioneer College Caterers has been serving faith-based campuses exclusively, nationwide, since 1973. They have an unyielding commitment to relationships founded on integrity, trust, and a shared mission.

Spelman Johnson is an executive search firm. Founded in 1991, they are recognized for their work in identifying and recruiting outstanding leaders in education, advocacy associations, and social impact organizations. 

Stamats partners with colleges and universities to help leaders envision, articulate and implement strategies to build engagement and drive results. They are marketing experts, story tellers and innovators.

Stevens Strategy, LLC is a full-service consulting firm specializing in managing the process of strategic change in colleges, universities, and schools. The firm offers professional services to the leaders of these institutions in the following areas: institutional vision and strategy, strategic organizational leadership, market and program analytics, finance and data analytics, and institution-wide policy manual development. Stevens Strategy’s consultants have extensive experience serving colleges, universities, and schools—including positions as present and former trustees, presidents, faculty members, vice presidents, and other senior staff—each with a particular area of expertise in leadership and management. The firm’s clients include independent and public institutions from the largest universities to the smallest colleges and schools in America and throughout the world. 

The Collaborative prides itself on design solutions tailored to each client’s specific needs and context. Founded in 1973, with offices in Toledo, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan, the firm is led by seven principals who are hands-on in every project. The firm’s 44-person team is broken down into functional focus areas, creating experts in the areas of design solutions and project delivery mechanics. The Collaborative’s experience includes more than 80 campuses and more than 650 major higher education projects. With this benchmarking knowledge, the firm can provide guidance for translating strategic goals into physical parameters.

AGB Institutional Strategies is one of a number of consulting services offered by the Association of Governing Boards and provides institutions of higher education with operational and mission-driven strategies that help achieve renewed institutional strength. Visit the website for more information about their process, consultants, and case studies. 

BCWH collaborates with colleges and universities to assess opportunities to enhance the campus and to design and capture the full potential of an institution's resources. A college or university campus is an eco-system for learning. At every scale, a well-designed campus serves the collegiate community with an environment for interaction, discovery, creation and reflection. BCWH helps institutions achieve that goal.

Celli-Flynn Brennan Architects & Planners is a full-service architecture and planning firm located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that specializes in transforming college and university campuses. Since its founding in 1949, Celli-Flynn Brennan’s work at dozens of higher education institutions has led to national recognition in the field, and the firm’s support of CIC over the past 20 years has helped it gain an understanding of the issues facing presidential leaders on campus and beyond. The firm aims to design buildings that support institutional mission, complement the cultural landscape, and promote student recruitment and retention. The company’s portfolio includes every type of building that one would find on a college campus. 

Hyatt-Fennell, Executive Search is a highly successful national and international executive search firm. The firm includes a strong support staff and excellent senior consultants who are rich in higher education and recruitment experience. Hyatt-Fennell is well-known and respected for placing top executives with private colleges and universities. Through a partnership with its clients, Hyatt-Fennell enhances and streamlines the search process and provides a commitment to find the perfect person for each position. Hyatt-Fennell brings over 60 years of experience to the process of client-centered service.

The Nelson Mullins School and College law team reaches across disciplines to help clients reach their goals and plan ahead. The firm provides boots-on-the-ground holistic representation for colleges and universities to serve their legal needs. Our education law professionals serve as thought leaders and partners to impact educational policy and advocate best practices. The firm has worked with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies and legislative bodies. We also represent clients before administrative tribunals and federal courts to achieve optimal results for our clients. A small sampling of our work includes strategic guidance, policy development, risk management, litigation and appellate work in areas such as Title IX, civil rights, college athletics, construction, real estate, finance and development, labor and employment, student issues, disabilities, immigration, accreditation, intellectual property, privacy and information security and tax.   

RH Perry & Associates, an executive search firm, partners with institutions of higher education and other mission-driven organizations to identify outstanding leaders. Established in 1974, RH Perry’s senior consultants and administrative team bring higher education leadership experience and search expertise to every assignment. With an excellent national reputation and demonstrated record of success for CIC-member institutions, the firm is committed to representing their client institutions and engaging with candidates in the highest ethical and professional manner.

RHB is a marketing and design consultancy serving higher education. The firm has aided more than 125 colleges and universities in their efforts to solve branding, marketing, enrollment, and fund-raising challenges. RHB’s mission to help great causes succeed leads them to market research, strategic planning and creative implementation solutions for institutions. The firm utilizes its experience and expertise to offer informed counsel to college and university presidents regarding differentiated marketing positions, signature experiences, and revenue-generating strategies. RHB also collaborates with the Lawlor Group to generate The Survey of Independent College Presidents, available at www.higheredintelligence.com. Through RHB Insights, the firm writes about and shares its latest thoughts on higher ed marketing to provide clarity and confidence to a higher ed readership that spans the globe. 

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC is a national law firm of more than 370 lawyers and other professionals practicing in 18 offices in Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The firm’s higher education team consists of attorneys from multiple disciplines who cater to the diverse legal service needs of independent colleges throughout the United States, including advice on a broad array of compliance issues and tax-exempt financing. The firm’s attorneys have held positions in higher education as in-house counsel, accountants, development officers, trustees, and faculty members, and they have extensive experience handling issues confronting multiple colleges. In short, the firm understands higher education and constantly aspires to provide cost-effective, pragmatic solutions based on that understanding.

Ziegler provides its higher education clients with private placement structuring, capital raising, public private partnership structuring, strategic advisory services, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, for both rated and non-rated bond issues. The higher education practice complements Ziegler's other business lines in the healthcare, senior living and education sectors, allowing us to leverage our unique expertise in complex credit structures and financial advisory services. Through the practice, independent colleges and universities can learn what their competitors are doing, keep abreast of market trends, and take advantage of new financing opportunities.

Kaludis Consulting has provided strategic advice, planning support, and management solutions to more than 700 colleges and universities and related organizations since 1977. The firm’s service portfolio emphasizes strategic, academic, and business planning; institutional economics and finance; and organizational design. Kaludis Consulting provides analysis, perspective, and guidance that enable clients to gain strategic traction in their thinking, planning, and decision making. The firm’s senior consultants have served as Presidents, Provosts, Academic Deans, CFOs, and in senior staff roles in Advancement in higher education.

The Dysart Group is a higher education consulting firm specializing in recruitment, financial aid, college finance and retention. The firm has assisted more than 200 colleges and universities in 42 states on issues related to enrollment management and enrollment growth. The Dysart Group consistently integrates enrollment management with institutional objectives regarding net revenue, budgeting, and strategic planning. Their clients have included private colleges, state universities, proprietary schools and a variety of special mission institutions including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the first Historically Hispanic University in the country, more than a dozen women’s colleges, along with religion-affiliated schools of various denominations.